CXVIII REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



from the St. Joseph River basin in the northeastern part of the State 

 to Logansport, where it empties into the Wabash River. It has a total 

 length of 72 miles, the average width of its basin being about 18 miles. 



During the summer of 1891, and again in May and June, 1892, Mr. 

 Lewis M. McCormick, assistant in the museum of Oberlin College, 

 acting in the joint interests of that institution and the Fish Commis- 

 sion, made extensive collections of fishes throughout Lorain County, 

 Ohio, in continuation of investigations which had been carried on during 

 the previous three years. In a report upon this work, which has been 

 published by Oberlin College,* 88 species are enumerated as inhabiting 

 the streams and the lake front of that county. Notes are also given 

 respecting their habits and other matters of interest. A complete 

 series of the species collected has been supplied to the Fish Commis- 

 sion. The following account of the main hydrographic features of 

 Lorain County is abstracted from Mr. McCormick's report: 



Loraiu County is wholly within the lake watershed, all its streams flowing north- 

 ward into Lake Erie. The streams are all small, the largest being Black River, 

 navigable for about 3 miles, and Vermillion River, having only about a mile of 

 safe water. * * * The land is quite flat, with a gentle slope toward the lake, 

 and the streams are mostly shallow and sluggish, the exceptions being found in the 

 parts that cross the "ridges," or old lake beaches, and a few of the small streams 

 that are tributary to the Vermillion. Some of these are quite brisk and have worn 

 for themselves deep channels in the shale. * * * Lake Erie, where it touches 

 Lorain County, is shallow, reaching a depth of about 55 feet 3 miles from shore, 

 and is free from islands. * * * . Pound nets are set in "strings" from perhaps 

 one-half a mile from shore to 3 miles, and it is from these I have obtained most of 

 my lake fishes. 



NORTH CAROLINA. 



In April, 1892, Dr. Hugh M. Smith, of the Division of Fisheries, 

 made a short trip to the Albemarle region of North Carolina, during 

 which he collected fishes at numerous places in the basins of the 

 Pasquotank and Roanoke rivers and in Edenton Bay, at the mouth of 

 the Chowan River. Owing to the early date at which this investiga- 

 tion was conducted, high, muddy water was generally met with, and 

 the temperature was also still low, causing unfavorable conditions for 

 fieldwork, and making it impossible to obtain nearly as full a repre- 

 sentation of the fishes of the region as would have been the case later 

 in the season. Notwithstanding this fixct, however, 45 species, belonging 

 to 35 genera and 18 families, were secured. In a paper discussing the 

 results of his expedition, t Dr. Smith describes the features existing 



* Descriptive List of the Fishes of Lorain County, Ohio. By Lewis M. McCormick, 

 assistant in the laboratory. Laboratory Bulletin No. 2, Oberlin College, Oberlin, 

 Ohio, 1892, pp. 34. One map of Oberlin County, 14 plates of fishes. 



t Report on a collection of fishes from the Albemarle region of North Carolina. 

 By Hugh M. Smith, m. d. Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., vol. xi, for 1891, pp. 185-200. 



